


Plastic Smiles and the Strength They Hide

by Element_of_Malice



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Gen, Sad with a Happy Ending, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, uplifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 16:38:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18673468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Element_of_Malice/pseuds/Element_of_Malice
Summary: Ponyvilles favorite mail mare takes a trip down memory lane and ends up giving some very helpful advice to somepony she only just met that day.





	Plastic Smiles and the Strength They Hide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ObabScribbler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObabScribbler/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Pony Tales [MLP Fanfic Readings] My Mommy (slice-of-life / uplifting)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/478993) by Written by Serina. Read by Scribbler. 



> For ObabScribbler: You have my permission to do a YouTube reading on this if you wish to do so.

The alarm clock was abruptly silenced the moment it sounded in order to allow a particular little filly unicorn in the next room over a few extra winks before they needed to get up and ready for school.

If the walls somehow managed to get any thinner than they already were, despite the few holes already present, then they would become translucent. However, with practiced ease and years of routine, the gray Pegasus silently got everything she needed to make breakfast for her and her daughter, fix up a school lunch and grab her work uniform all without waking up her little ray of sunshine.

Within her home, she could cook, clean, decorate, and always knew where everything was even if she was blindfolded. However, the moment she stepped outside it became uncharted territory no matter how hard Ponyville’s most recognized mail mare tried to map it out.

Derpy loved repetitive tasks mainly because she could perform just as good as any pony else once she had it down, but that involved ‘burning a few muffins’ as she put it. Unfortunately, however, that was the same reason why most ponies saw her as a clumsy bringer of misfortune and destruction. Like when she worked for the moving company, part of it was because she heard the phrase ‘twitchy tail’ and knew what it meant. The other part was, she miscalculated the distance between her hoofs and the furniture resulting in dropping half the cargo on an unfortunate mare below.

Even after explaining that to her boss, it wasn’t enough to convince him not to fire her on the first day of the job. Delivering mail was much more comfortable, same addresses, same route, same ponies, and a relatively same time schedule. What made it hard on the grey Pegasus however was the fact that every envelope and package she had to deliver had a different style of writing, so Derpy was constantly mixing up letters even if it was the same address it wasn’t easy to tell right away.

There were a few regulars that would receive weekly if not daily mail from the same pony, but otherwise, each letter, at first glance, was almost like a foreign language that took her at least five minutes to decipher. Her first day on the job didn’t go so well because it was nearly a month later before she finally caught up with the rest of the mail ponies, and due to that, almost everyone in town looked at Derpy in a way that made her feel unwanted or like she had insulted them in some way. She was already used to such behaver, but that didn’t make the feelings of doubt, regret and painful memories of foalhood feel any less hurtful.

She remembered a time where just about every classmate she knew poked fun at her eyes and clumsiness, the bullying got so bad that she had to transfer schools, but that was only after nearly drowning in a river.

One of her classmates thought it would be hilarious if they put a rain cloud that they froze the night before in an obstacle course that she had difficulty with, but everyone else had no trouble completing.

The moment Derpy flew into it, she was met with more than just the thundershock her little body had grown accustomed too, being sturdier than the average foal due to all her previous misshapes. Instead, she slammed into the solid chunk of ice and spiraled out of control towards the river and with an added electric jolt she was momentarily paralyzed and disoriented.

The moment she hit the ice-cold water she thought her life was over. It seemed like hours until a chaperoning Pegasus who had witnessed the whole ordeal dived in to rescue her. After that, her hearing was not quite the same, with a mild ringing in both ears and it also took longer for her to prosses information resulting from damage dealt to an oxygen-starved brain.

The next day her family moved to start a new life elsewhere, even so, the bullying continued, at least until a particular rainbow-maned filly not only stood up to what seemed like an army gathered around her but also gave her words of encouragement. That night she cried alone for hours relieved to find that there was some pony out there about her age who actually cared about how she felt.

Those days never got any easier, but just knowing that some pony was willing to stand up for her made all those hard times seem less stressful. But that was in the past, this is in the now, and right now Derpy was just about to deliver the last letter for the day, excited to be back in time to welcome home her little bundle of joy that had brought a smile to her day even on the dreariest of times.

Derpy came up to the door and knocked, “Delivery.” She heard a startled gasp muffled behind the door. After a moment the door opened up, and the face of the residential homeowner poked out, they had a dark blue coat and a glittering silver mane with a streak of gold.

“Oh, hey how’s your day going?” She said with a welcoming smile.

“Um…” Derpy stared for a moment not recognizing her, but also noticing a look she has seen more than enough times on many faces throughout her life, over half of them being her own as she looked in a mirror. “Are you alright?”

Despite her vision impairment she could see the forced smile, practiced expression, and posture, and slightly misty eyes. The mail mare’s question seemed to throw her off, as a bewildered look crossed her face.

“I… I uh,” she then glared at Derpy, “look, just give me the mail and get lost!” She snatched the envelopes and slammed the door.

Derpy blinked, with her job done for the day she began to leave but turned her head and stared back at the house. Once she made up her mind, she knocked on the door again, by doing so she heard a muffled crash, then an aggravated set of hooves storming over to the door. “What!”

The grey Pegasus shrunk back slightly, “Uh… oh, horse apples please don’t let this cost me my job, listen just stop lying to yourself okay? You might think no pony else understand what you’re going through, and you’re right they don’t. I know that because I’ve felt the exact same way for most of my life, I’m not saying that I can relate to whatever problem you’re having right now, because that would make me the liar. But I can’t just leave here knowing how alone you feel right now because you’re not. So I just thought that I’d let you know, if you ever need to get anything off you’re back, or if you just need some comfort, feel free to drop by my place anytime, I’ll be there for you.” The dark blue mare looked as if she was slapped across the face as the Pegasus flew off.

The next morning Derpy was able to sleep in due to a mishap that took place at the post office. Luckily, she arrived just seconds after it happened, meaning the blame didn’t get pinned on her as it usually did.

Since she didn’t have to work that day, it allowed a rare opportunity for her to send Dinky off to school. As she was cleaning up breakfast, she heard a knock. After answering it, a pony she couldn’t immediately recognize stood outside. Last night she slept in an awkward position resulting in one of her eyes being blurrier.

“Uh…” with a combination of head tilting and eye squinting she could almost make out a familiar form, “what can I do for…” She wasn’t allowed to finish her sentence. Instead, the pony outside threw themselves onto her in the most genuine hug they have given in a long time and began trembling, crying out years’ worth of pent-up grieve and agony.

With their mane closer, Derpy could make out the silver color with a streak of gold. “There, there.” She smiled softly and returned the hug, just sitting there, allowing as much time as she needed for all the pain and hurt the Pegasus saw in those eyes the day before to turn into tears, softly rubbing her back in comfort.

After what seemed like mere moments to Derpy, but hours for her more than welcomed visitor, the stranger spoke between sniffles and sobs, “I-I’m sorry for… I didn’t… I thought there… Tha-Thank you.”

Derpy shushed her then said, “come on in, I’ve got some leftover muffins. You can tell me anything you’d like or whatever makes you comfortable.” She draped a wing over her gest and ushered her inside.

After all these years of one misfortune leading up to another resulting in the loss of multiple jobs, family, friends, fortune, home, and just about everything else, the dark blue mare felt indebted to the walleyed Pegasus by preventing her not once but twice from wearing a noose which now lay mostly burned in the fireplace.

**Author's Note:**

> “Showing true feats of strength is not done through competition but by freely giving it to others in order to make their burdens lighter”
> 
> “The only way to truly know how someone else feels is to have been there yourself”


End file.
